iPhone screen dims randomly

So here is my update. I went to the Apple store today and they swapped out my iPhone X. It’s been five hours and I have not had the issue yet. However, I haven’t done any heavy use and haven’t been plugged into a charger with a slightly higher amperage. It happens more often when that occurs. We’ll see and I’ll keep you posted.

I just received a call from my advisor and this is what I was told. Basically the phone is getting hot and it needs to dim the screen to keep it cool and the phone is balancing the settings I have on to keep cool. I explained to her that this has happened in as little a 3 minutes of using it in my car and she said if the car is hot then that will affect it.

Problem with that is this has happened in winter in Wisconsin at temps below 30 degrees so I really don’t buy that explanation.

I also told her what has happened to others in this thread. I think this is a bigger issue, however, I don’t think we will ever get this resolved.

I’ve used the iPhone 6 & 7 the same way on 12 plus hour road trips and not once have those screens dimmed.

I hope someone else on this thread has better luck.

Trpl4

I have a feeling you are right. I think this is totally unacceptable. 70 degree surface temperature and the phone dims??!!! That is not even hot and the phone should not be “over heating” at that temperature.

Basically what I got back from Apple is to keep the phone in acceptable opertating temperature.

I explained to the advisor that after using my X for 3 minutes on my dash how can that not be acceptable operating temperature?

As previously stated, I have used the iPhone 6 & 7 for over 12 hours in June from Wisconsin to Tennessee using Waze and not once did the phones dim.

My wife who is using an iPhone 6 is starting to experience this same issue indoors. She isn’t doing anything but surfing the web, nothing graphics/processor intensive.

I had the issue with my iPhone 6s and 7. I did not have it with the 6. I'd say the issue was even worse with the iPhone 6s and 7, though my first X was pretty bad. This one is nearly a week old and it's better (but it still does happen to an extent).

I really suspect this is a heat issue/safety feature. Well, Apple, what is the point of putting this amazing, high performance processors in your devices if you can't use them because the screen dims?

I have the same exact problem when I use Waze. When I use Waze my iPhone X gets very warm after about 15 - 20 minutes of navigation. The screen gets darker and darker until I can longer read the screen directions and street names for example. With only the voice directions the app becomes useless. Using the wireless charging feature seems to accelerate the issue.

Waze is the only app causing a problem.

Additional info: Once Waze darkens the screen all apps have a dark screen. It takes about 15 minutes for the phone to cool down and the screen to come back to normal brightness. The phone never shuts down completely and never shows the warning screen that your phone is getting too hot and needs to cool down. The local Genius Bar ran all their diagnostic tests and found no issues with my phone. I uninstalled Waze and reinstalled app - no difference. I did a fresh install of my operating system after whipping my phone clean - no difference. I only installed a handful of apps on my fresh operating system and again - no difference.

I am unable to run Waze in my car for more than 15 - 20 minutes and still read the screen!!

Extremely frustrating and unacceptable for a $1,000.00 phone

I’m right there with you Pete193, this issue has nothing to do with Waze. I believe it’s a heat issue or perhaps a malfunction of the hardware of the phone when it reads sunlight.

Something I recently learned, it also happens with my 12.9“ iPad. And the screen responds in a more erratic wackier way than my iPhone. Bright, dim, bright, dim, it’s as if it doesn’t know how be outdoors in sunlight. Im curious if any of you have the most recent generation of iPads and have taken them outdoors in the sunlight and experienced the same similar occurrence.

More importantly it’s beyond inconvenient in that it makes the impossible to use outdoors. I get the need to keep it cool but they should have come up with a work around that doesn’t make the majority of a $1000 device unusable outdoors.

Same issue here. Any time I am in the sunlight taking pictures, 5-10 later i5 will dim to a point that it is impossible to see the screen unless I take the phone to shade. It has to be a heat issue. Extremely disappointed that I can’t take pictures for my job. Judging from the response, Apple is not concerned. I’ll take my phone to ATT, stand outside innthe sun for 10 minutes and have the employee come out and request that he read the screen. Switching to a Galaxy.

This is not true. If you have read any previous posts including mine the screen dimming occurrs on other models, not just the X and all of the phones are running iOS 11.

So I have my X, it’s in my pocket not being used so there is no load on the processors and it’s not producing heat. I place it in the cradle on my dash, tap on Apple Maps and put in my directions. I put my vehicle in drive and in less than 2 minutes my screen dims to dark I can barely see it.

How can the phone get that hot in less than 2 minutes??? And it happens to my wife’s phone which is an iPhone 6 and she is just reading books, in the house so she is not in direct sunlight.

No, it’s not a feature to prevent burn in, it’s a bug in iOS 11. My sister has the 6s, she drove here from out of state and guess what??? Her screen was dimming.

As I stated earlier, I’ve used phones running iOS 10 and earlier and have never had this happen. I get the X with iOS 11 and it starts right away.

Apple doesn’t want to admit it’s an issue and hopefully they fixed it with iOS 12. Is anyone on this thread running the beta of iOS 12? I wonder if it’s continuing to happen on iOS 12.

I did install an aftermarket radio with CarPlay and no longer have the issue.

I just figured that iOS 11 has not only one but 2 Auto-Brightness settings options. My problem was more nonrelated with temperature (changing brightness while reading a book, just like with your wife) and after checking everything that it has been said on this thread (and on another one) I figured out that I had one turned on and the other one off. I have been using for a couple of hours now and it seams that the problem is solved.

Just tried my X without the case and it maybe lasted a bit longer than with the Apple case on before it ‘Auto’ started stepping down the brightness. Defenitly runs a little cooler without the case. Also running IOS 12 so this issue wasn’t fixed in the release like I was hoping. The strange thing is that even when the device is still feeling about the same temperature, sometimes it will start to automatically start stepping the brightness back up. The brightness slider has no effect in returning max actual brightness. I also fly drones with my iPad Pro and X and it’s a real issue trying to see the screen in the sun after the devices start mysteriously auto dimming (despite turning off all the auto dimming functions). The Pro really doesn’t like the direct sunlight and will quickly go into overheat auto shutdown. That one is however a design feature...

Ok AnthonyAllState, on your iPhone X, you have to the settings app, after that, click General, then click Accessibility. When you click Accessibility, click Display Accommodations and Auto-Brightness is on there and slide the button to the left to turn off your Auto-Brightness and it won't move by itself anymore, glad to help you.

Here’s some trouble shooting tips on how to reduce battery usage.

settings> General> background app refresh and disable any apps that you don’t want active in the background when your not using the app.

go to settings> General> accessibility> Reduce motion and turn that on, be aware that turning that on will disable weather animations through the apple built in weather app.

go to settings> Passwords and accounts> Fetch new data and fetch data hourly.

go to settings> Control center> Customize controls and delete any controls you don’t want in the control center since this will reduce usage of the interface every time you pull down the control center.

i hope this helps and please let me know if you need help with anything else.

Same issue here, back to the 6S and 7 plus. Now on the X. All auto brightness turned off. I think it is power/heat/battery related. Annoying.

Settings- General- Accessibility- Display Accommodations- Reduce White Point- Off